Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Paul Babeu Threatened Male Mexican Boyfriend With Deportation

In yet another expose of a far right politician as being secretly gay, the Phoenix New Times has coverage on the secret same sex relationship of Pinal Sheriff Paul Babeu - and the threats that Babeu allegedly made to his lover if the lover every revealed their relationship. It's yet another example of conservative hypocrisy soaring off the charts. To make the story even more fun, Sheriff Babeu supposedly also had a profile on adam4adam.com. For the life of me, I cannot understand how someone can be posing as a far right ideologue and at the same time leading a completely double life. Yes, I was in the closet for years, but I never acted upon my orientation. And when I finally came to terms with it - or at least started that process - I clean about it. Here are highlights on the hypocrisy and double standard of Mr. Babeu:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu's personal attorney, who's also running the sheriff's campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

Melissa Weiss-Riner, Jose's attorney, confirms her client's account. She says she spoke directly to the sheriff's lawyer, DeRose, about the Babeu camp's threats that Jose could be deported if he "revealed the relationship." She says DeRose falsely claimed that Jose's visa had expired. "Jose came to our firm because he felt he was being intimidated, and he was in fear for his life," Weiss-Riner says. "He wanted his legal rights protected."

"If what [Babeu's attorney] says is correct [about Jose's being illegal], either the sheriff had a long relationship with someone he knew was undocumented, while all the time being Mr. Bluster about the border and using it for political gain," or he threatened to deport someone he just broke up with, Merritt says. "That's just the worst kind of hypocrisy." She adds that federal immigration-enforcement agents have better things to do than "take care of Babeu's boyfriends."

Antonio Bustamante, a criminal defense attorney and immigration activist, tells New Times that if the allegations against Babeu are true, "To use a position of authority . . . and make legal threats opens a Pandora's box of ethics issues for any law enforcement person or any elected person. In this case, he's both."

On October 23, Babeu announced that he was considering a run to represent Arizona's newly formed 4th Congressional District, which includes parts of La Paz, Yavapai, Mohave, and Pinal counties. (Heinz announced recently that he's also running for Congress — to fill Gabrielle Giffords' vacated seat.)

Babeu has since confirmed that he's running, and polls of voters in the extremely conservative congressional district show him with a strong lead over Republican opponents Paul Gosar and Ron Gould — the latter of whom is campaigning on a strong family-values ticket.

There's much more in the New Times story. And, meanwhile on Babeu's congressional campaign website the main title is: "It’s time to send a true conservative to Washington, DC." The website also states: "The assault on our country, our constitution and our freedom coming from Washington, DC is unacceptable."

Somehow I suspect that Babeu's political prospects just took a major hit.